If you love cinema, you will know that “The Great Gatsby” danced it’s way into theaters just yesterday. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, the movie centers around a young voyeur and his friendship with a reclusive and mysterious billionaire named Jay Gatsby, who hosts lavish parties for New York City’s best and brightest. Behind his eccentricity lies a “hopeless romantic” who is lost and trying to recover the past with the love of his life, an unhappily married woman named Daisy.

The movie, directed by Baz Lohman, was full of stunning cinematography, lavish parties and stark landscapes between locations, and despite my unfortunate lack of connection with any of the main characters, you just have to admire the outlandish prohibition galas that the Great Gatsby threw every weekend. Coming out of the film, I was full of inspiration to provide to you on how to throw your very own Great Gatsby party!

A Great Gatsby themed party is basically a 1920’s gangster themed party with the extravagance and the decadence meter turned up to full volume. If you want the full experience, you need your guests to show up in flapper dresses, gangster suit and ties, sequins, feathers and pantyhose. Think about what the high class of people would wear in the 1920’s and make it bigger!

Photo by Let’s Go Sunning

Once your guests are sorted, you need to set the scene. As I mentioned, extravagance is your friend! There was a particular party in the movie that showcased dangling silver hanging decorations, which you as a party planner can purchase from any party store, or online retailer. They are generally door curtains, but you can hang them up over walls to create a shimmering feature wall.

Buy heaps of these for the guests to be surrounded by, and set up a silver lined drinks table with flashy martini glasses available for your guests. You can even do something fancy and set up a champagne fountain! Serve Dom and Moet, and add in some fancy tea cakes as well!

Photo by Wholehearted Studio

Get light and floaty in another form of decorations by setting up a gold backdrop. Use fancy crystal and glass as flower vases for floating white roses and lilies, as well as using them as a candy dish or food dish for your guests food. You can even go so far as they did above and add in a white, royal styled moose or rams head that is made out of plaster.

Photo by Jess Kornacki at Art of Her

A good fancy decoration you can use is to add some white feather boas to the vases and acrylic diamond dripped chandeliers, like the photo above. Use flowers, see-through drapes and diamonds to add the extra decadence to your party!

Now the best thing to do is turn on the music, lay out the glasses of champagne and teacakes, and get your decadent decorations in order. If you throw your own Great Gatsby party, email me at thepartyconnection@hotmail.com